Notes
Variable Star, a novel by Spider Robinson based upon a story outline by Robert A. Heinlein.

The image opposite and the blurb below are from the 4th printing of the 2007 Tor Books paperback edition, ISBN 9780765351685. Cover illustration by Stephan Martiniere.

Publisher’s Blurb – Lower Cover
"An enjoyable read."
Entertainment Weekly

At his death, in 1988, Robert A. Heinlein left behind a legacy of novels and short stories that almost single-handedly defined modern science fiction.

But one of Heinlein's masterpieces was never finished.

In 1955, he began work on Variable Star—a powerful and passionate tale of two young lovers driven apart by pride, power, and the vastness of interstellar time and space—only to set it aside to focus on other novels.

The detailed outline and notes Heinlein created for the project lay forgotten for decades, only to be rediscovered almost half a century later. Now the Heinlein estate has authorized Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Spider Robinson to expand the outline into a full-length novel. The result is vintage Heinlein, faithful in style and spirit to the Grand Master's original vision.

"Robert A. Heinlein apparently isn't really dead. He was obviously standing at the side of Spider Robinson as he wrote this book, guiding his hand. Variable Star will delight the fans of the greatest science fiction writer who ever lived, and at the same time, stays true to Spider's passionate themes of optimism, kindness, and humanity's future among the stars."
John Varley, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of The Persistence of Vision

"This book is a delight, and I love you for doing it. I love you even more for doing it so well. Thank you."
David Crosby, singer/songwriter

"A splendid wondrous lovely Spider Robinson novel that just also happens to be a new Heinlein novel."
The San Diego Union-Tribune